Shannell Christmas has joined Global Travel Network (GTN) with her new retail shop in Whangarei – Travel and Cruise HQ. It's a return to GTN for Christmas who previously operated Small World Travel and Cruise.

‘I knew I wanted to have a large cruise specialist presence here, because I love cruise and feel it is something consumers look for,’ explains Christmas. ‘I created a brand, found a fantastic location and got myself set-up

Bjoern Spreitzer will lead the newly established team at Tourism New Zealand to restart domestic tourism. The team will ensure TNZ is set up to work in the domestic space and will be structured similar to offshore markets with PR, marketing and trade resource reporting to Spreitzer as general manager.

TNZ’s work in the domestic space will focus on demand stimulation at a national level. Research is currently underway to gather consumer insights to help shape an audience and channels strategy.

The original writer of Pearl’s Pearlers, a regular feature in TRAVELinc Memo / Travel Memo has passed away aged 99.

Pearl Cooper, a former travel agent, started writing her gems in the 1990s when the memos were sent out with brochures to travel agents from Brochure Rack. She continued writing the regular Pearlers when former Travel Memo owner Kevin Blackford started sending the Memo as a stand alone publication – on paper and then digitally.